Kei Hiruta
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Kei Hiruta is a political theorist and Research Fellow at Wolfson College, University of Oxford. He received his D.Phil. in Political Theory from Oxford, and has held research and visiting positions at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, Columbia University, Bard College, and the University of Tokyo. His monograph on Hannah Arendt and Isaiah Berlin is forthcoming from Princeton University Press, and his edited volume entitled ‘Arendt on Freedom, Liberation, and Revolution’ is forthcoming from Palgrave
Macmillan. He is a co-founder and Associate Editor of Arendt Studies.
Research interests
Political theory; political philosophy; theories of freedom; value pluralism and moral conflict; liberalism; republicanism; totalitarianism; twentieth-century political thought; Hannah Arendt; Isaiah Berlin
Berlin's Bête Noire: Hannah Arendt and Isaiah Berlin on Freedom, Politics and Humanity
‘Berlin’s Bête Noire’ will be the first comparative study of the lives and works of Isaiah Berlin (1909–1997) and Hannah Arendt (1906–1975). It makes the three-fold argument that: 1) major normative differences between the two thinkers are anchored in their conflicting views of the human condition; 2) this point of disagreement is rooted in their dispute over the inhumanity of totalitarian oppression and domination; and 3) the latter dispute in turn stems from the differences between Berlin’s Bolshevik-focused and Arendt’s Nazi-focused approaches to totalitarianism. Combining political philosophy and intellectual history, my research highlights specific aspects of the protagonists’ life-stories to illuminate their multifaceted disagreement. It unearths important similarities as well as differences between Berlin and Arendt, whose (partially) shared mode of political theorising contrasts with the recent post-Rawlsian standard. It concludes with a reflection on a highly contested issue of our time, namely, the pros and cons of philosophers’ engagement in real-world politics. I argue that the attempt to make political philosophy more political is highly precarious as well as potentially fulfilling.
 Colloquium organized by M. Jonik, 2018-2019 Paris IAS fellow  Film screening and round table organized by K. Hiruta, 2018-2019 Paris IAS fellow, with the participation of filmmaker Judith Wechsler  Kei Hiruta presents his research project within the framework of the weekly internal seminar  Talk by K. Hiruta, 2018-2019 Paris IAS fellow |
 Princeton University Press  Res Publica  Keio University Press  Palgrave Macmillan  Palgrave Macmillan  Arendt Studies |
 Research project: "Berlin's Bête Noire: Hannah Arendt and Isaiah Berlin on Freedom, Politics and Humanity" |
